1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and a recording method provided with judgment means which automatically identifies a type of a recording medium.
2. Related Background Art
A recording apparatus in a printer, a facsimile apparatus, a copying apparatus, or a composite equipment or system including the same records an image on a recording medium such as a recording paper sheet based on image information, and is based on various recording methods such as an ink jet recording system, a laser beam system or a thermal transfer system. Such recording apparatuses are recently faced with an increasingly stronger request for a higher definition in image formation, and, for example in an ink jet recording apparatus, particularly in a color ink jet recording apparatus, executing an image recording by discharging inks, there is required an image formation comparable, in image clarity and image quality, to a silver halide-based photograph. A finer particle formation in the discharged ink and a more exact ink discharge are necessary for meeting such requirement, but improvements are also necessitated in the recording medium.
Among the recording media, those having various surface states (surface characteristics) such as a glossy surface, a semi-glossy surface and a matted (non-glossy) surface have been developed for reproducing an image texture of silver halide-based photographs, and the user can now select these recording media according to the taste. In addition to such photo-like recording media, the recording is also executed on a plain paper, a coated paper, a postcard, an ink jet-purpose postcard, an OHP film and the like, and the system of the recording apparatus is required to selectively adapt to such recording media.
In general, the recording media often show, depending on the material coated on the surface, difference in a color developing state and an ink absorbing state. For this reason, it is often conducted to optimize an image color processing and an ink deposition amount according to the type of the recording medium, in order to record a satisfactory image. The selections for such optimization are executed on a printer driver, stored in a host computer connecting to the recording apparatus. However, the selection of the recording medium to be used is done by the user, and it is necessary for the user, at the printing operation, to execute an operation, on a display image screen of the printer driver, of selecting the type of the recording medium on which the recording is to be made.
Also the recording apparatuses are becoming to be used in diversified methods, such as, in addition to the use by connecting to a host computer, a direct connection to a digital camera and a printing by a direct insertion of a memory card. Also in such cases, there are required input operations for the size and the type of the recording medium to be used by the user, in the same manner as in the case of connection to the host computer. Since such operations are cumbersome and often result in an error when executed by an unskilled user, a recording apparatus equipped with detection means which automatically judges the recording medium is recently developed. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,236, an optical sensor is principally utilized as the detection means.
In the prior recording apparatus, however, it is insufficient, for obtaining a print of a desired image quality, merely to judge the recording medium by receiving a detection result signal form the detection means and to execute a printing by optimizing the image color process and the ink deposition amount based on such result. The user is required to input a size of the recording medium on an image of an application or a printer driver, and also to simultaneously set the recording medium of a matching size on a sheet feeding unit. Otherwise, the printing area does not match the recording medium in size, but overflows from or is excessively smaller than the recording medium. Such size entering operation is also cumbersome for an unskilled user and often result in a mismatching of the image and the recording medium in size.